Online Extras

Shopping memoriesDo you have memories of holidays past in downtown Erie? Business writer Jim Martin is working on an upcoming story about the old days, when holiday shopping was something that happened on State Street, not upper Peach Street.Share your thoughts and memories by sending an e-mail to jim.martin@timesnews.com or call him at 870-1668.

But Faipler, the department's patrol commander, knows something about traffic. And he's seeing a lot of it lately, especially in the region's retail heartland of Peach Street and Interchange Road.

He's not the only one who has noticed a difference.

As the holiday shopping season enters the home stretch, there are signs, both here and across the country, that this will be a bounceback season for many retailers.

Christmas 2011 was a good one for the Cafaro Co., the Youngstown-based owner of the Millcreek Mall.

But an informal survey of mall retailers and an analysis of mall traffic suggests this year could be substantially better, said Joe Bell, spokesman for Cafaro.

"The past several weekends have been extremely busy," he said. "They (the mall staff) are getting a feeling from folks in and through the mall concourse that this is going to be a very successful year for the retailers."

Bell said the mall staff has noticed another trend -- traffic is getting heavier each week, particularly on the weekends.

Past experience and an extra weekend in this year's shopping season suggest that local retailers could see a last-minute rush.

"They think there is a significant proportion of shoppers who are waiting until the last minute," Bell said.

Pamela O'Baker, owner of the Amish Buggy on Peach Street, said she too is encouraged by what she's seeing.

"It's stronger than last year," she said. "A lot more people are out and about, a lot more traffic."

She's not sure if it's a function of tough times, but O'Baker said in recent years she's seen customers focus on practical gifts.

"I was surprised that the last couple years that we have not sold many Christmas decorations," she said. "This year they are going crazy for the decorations."

That anecdotal evidence seems to echo the findings of the National Retail Federation, which reported that November sales were up 4.4 percent compared with November 2011.

"A successful Thanksgiving weekend for retailers and diminishing impacts in the Northeast due to Hurricane Sandy put retail sales back on track in November," said Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation.

Sales grew even more quickly for online retailers, who saw sales grow 12.3 percent from the previous November.

Rich Weber, owner of the Erie Sport Store, said most, but not all, of the evidence points to a strong holiday shopping season for his store in Summit Township.

Sales of golf and hockey equipment as well as licensed sports apparel all have posted strong gains over last year.

But it's not enough to make up for a sharp decline in sales of ski equipment and clothing and other cold-weather items.

"Most all departments are up," Weber said. "But the winter sports represent a huge chunk of our sales. It would take an enormous amount of cus- tomers to make up for that."

Brian Bowers, owner of the Sports Obsession in the mall, is facing challenges of his own because of the ongoing NHL lockout.

Bowers, who sells professional sports jerseys and clothing, said his sales of NHL apparel is off 75 percent, leaving him with a total sales deficit of 18 percent for the holiday season.

But Bowers said he isn't worried.

"We have an extra weekend in the shopping season," he said. "That will make up for it. We'll end up even."

In general, government numbers seem to support the evidence that consumers are spending.

Despite concerns about the so-called "fiscal cliff," the Commerce Department said retail sales grew 0.3 percent in November, or 0.5 percent if sales of cars, gasoline and building supplies were excluded.

O'Baker, however, offers a bit of context to what seems like good news.

"We are trying to get back to where we were before the recession," she said. "We are slowly getting back, but it's definitely not back to that point yet."